San Francisco 49ers linebacker De'Vondre Campbell tapped out of the team's Thursday night loss to the Los Angeles Rams, refusing to take the field and walking off into the locker room in the third quarter. His actions did not sit well with his teammates, who continued to fight only to see their slim playoff hopes get even slimmer thanks to an inability to muster more than six points on a rainy night. The unusual move has understandably become catnip for the sports talk shows. Takes from those who never played the game and risked serious injury can be discounted but Campbell is not getitng a very good edit from former players now in analyst positions.
ESPN's Ryan Clark weighed in on the situation, which came on a night where 49ers defensive star Dre Greenlaw was making an emotional return from an Achilles injury suffered 10 months ago in the Super Bowl.
"He has no deposits in the San Francisco 49ers emotional bank account," Clark said. "Dre Greenlaw has all of those deposits. If you remember when that man was running off the sidelines and tore his Achilles, not only were the San Francisco 49ers dejected, the first thing No. 15 of the Kansas City Chiefs said on the other side is 'Dre Greenlaw's down.' That's the sort of man that you are replacing and you did a good job, now do the rest of your job. And when you're called on again, stand up for your team."
As of right now the prevailing opinion on Campbell is that once an NFL player suits up for a game and is healthy enough to go, there is no turning back. No one can truly get inside Campbell's head and understand the motivations but that's not going to stop him from fighting an almost impossible fight to regain credibility, both in his locker room and outside of it.
Clark closes the clip by going so far as to say Campbell should never play again, wondering why any player would want him on their team.
Emotions are always highest in the immediate aftermath so it's not a surprise to hear something like that. Practically speaking, though, there are only so many players capable of playing at the NFL level and it's a little bit difficult to think not a single team would be willing to look past the quitting incident if they think Campbell can help them in the future.
It's a rough situation for Campbell and even if you don't want to judge him too severely, it's tough to argue anything but that he put himself in the situation.
